SpaceX could make new astronaut spacesuits for NASA

Elon Musk offered SpaceX’s services to help NASA manufacture its next-generation spacesuits, after a monitoring report released on Tuesday said the agency’s current program was overdue and would cost more than $ 1 billion. of dollars.

“SpaceX could do it if need be,” Musk wrote in a tweet.

Musk’s company has developed and manufactured flight suits for astronauts who launch into orbit in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Flight suits are primarily designed to protect astronauts in the event of a fire inside the spacecraft, or if the cabin becomes depressurized. Building spacesuits would be a more complex and difficult endeavor, given the need to survive outside of a spaceship in the harsh environment of space.

NASA spokeswoman Monica Witt, in a statement to CNBC on Musk’s offer, highlighted the agency’s request last month for companies in the space industry for comment on “the purchase. spacesuits, commercial equipment and services “.

Musk’s proposal came in response to a report from the Inspector General of NASA – which is the investigative office that audits the agency for fraud and mismanagement – on work underway to develop a new line of Extravehicular mobility units (EMUs), which are informally referred to as space suits. .

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station use space suits “designed 45 years ago for the space shuttle program,” the report notes. IG also pointed out that these spacesuits have been “refurbished and partially redesigned” over the past decades to continue to function.

The space agency has launched three different space suit programs since 2007, discovered the Inspector General, and has spent $ 420.1 million on development since then. Additionally, the report states that NASA “plans to invest an additional approximately $ 625.2 million” in the development, testing and qualification to complete one suit for a demonstration on the ISS and two suits for the mission. crewed on the moon – at a total cost of “over $ 1 billion” through 2025.

Beyond skyrocketing costs, the Inspector General said delays “due to lack of funding, impacts of COVID-19 and technical challenges” have eliminated the chance that the spacesuits will be ready on time. The spacesuits “won’t be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest,” according to the report. NASA initially announced that the spacesuits would be ready by March 2023.

NASA needs new spacesuits for its Artemis program, which was announced by President Donald Trump’s administration and continued under President Joe Biden. Artemis is expected to consist of several missions to the orbit and surface of the moon in the coming years, with NASA aiming to land astronauts on the lunar body by 2024. Although NASA has stuck to the goal from 2024, the Inspector General has repeatedly warned that the schedule is threatened by several major programs that are key to Artemis’ success.

Earlier this year, Musk called the 2024 timeline “really doable,” after SpaceX became a staple of Artemis by winning a $ 2.9 billion contract to use its Starship rocket to send astronauts on the surface of the moon.

Space suits have a multitude of different components, which the Inspector General says are supplied by 27 different companies. It’s a point Musk also made, claiming in a tweet that it “seems too many cooks in the kitchen.”

SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on whether the company has started work on its own spacesuits.